“How long, O Lord, how long? When am I ever going to get this ordeal laid to rest?”
Dick decided it made no sense to worry about which mountain was higher until the final answer came in.
“Men spend most of their lives worrying about things that usually never happen,” he told himself.
And if it does happen, Dick thought, I’ll just have to pucker my tail to my tonsils and go back and climb Tyree.
Meanwhile, Dick followed through with his plan to have the gala Seven Summits banquet he had long dreamed of. It was set for August 4, 1985, on top of 11,000-foot Hidden Peak, overlooking Snowbird.
Everyone on any of Frank and Dick's expeditions received an invitation saying “tuxes for men and appropriate party dresses for women are required. Because of the rocky terrain on top of Hidden Peak both guys and gals are encouraged to wear climbing boots or hiking shoes.”
Dick hired a camera crew to film the event.
“It'll be the perfect finale to our movie,” Dick told Frank. “Just like I described to you that day on the Everest North Wall expedition in ‘82.”
Dick also lined up the 80-piece Utah Symphony and the 150 member Jay Welch Chorale. When the big day came, the musicians and singers took a late afternoon tram to the summit of Hidden Peak. The rest of us—300 total, including many Snowbird employees— followed an hour later.
It was perfect weather. The symphony was located under a huge portable cover and the choir on raised bleacher seats. Next to them a forty-foot banquet table festooned with ice carvings and baskets filled with flowers was decorated with a whole pig with apple in its mouth, pheasants, lobsters, trays of snow crab, shrimp, smoked salmon and trout, white asparagus, caviar, and platters of exotic tropical fruit. Behind, running the length of the banquet table were huge four-foot-high letters carved from ice blocks that spelled out “Seven Summits,” and nearby several chefs manned Texas-sized barbecues racked with whole strips of tenderloin and hundreds of roasting tiger shrimp. A phalanx of tuxedoed waiters was standing by on the sidelines, each waiter with a tray supporting a bottle of champagne.
I was standing next to a Dallas oilman friend of Dick's who I heard tell his wife, “You know darlin’, even ol’ Malcolm Forbes never put on a shindig like this.”
Altogether, there were more than 500 people on the summit of the mountain. As Dick had promised when he first had the idea for the banquet, it was “a feast that would make Nebuchadnezzar envious.”
Dick had carefully planned the feast from beginning to end, and as part of the plan he and Frank, instead of taking the tram, were hiking to the top of Hidden Peak. Now, with all the guests waiting with champagne in hand, and with the film crew rolling, the pair with packs on their backs crested the ridge to the reverberating crescendo of “Climb Every Mountain.” They retired behind a temporary screen, then, as the symphony played “The Blue Danube,” they doffed their climbing clothes and in time to the waltz tossed their hiking shoes and socks, soiled pants, shirts and underwear over the screen, emerging a few minutes later in black tie and tuxes.
They were each given champagne, and with their glasses raised to each other Dick spoke: “First, I’d like to say what I said on top of Everest,” Dick told the crowd. He then recited the same message of thanksgiving to his creator, family, and friends he had said on the summit, ending with the dedication to Marty and “to all the plus-fifties in the world who share with me the conviction that the second half can and should be the best half.”
The crowd cheered, and Dick then recited the last lines of Tennyson's “Ulysses.”
“I’ve got one more thing to say, and this is to Frank. I really feel it's divine providence that we met, and the friendship and warm esteem we have for each other after what we've shared on the Seven Summits odyssey is as meaningful an achievement for me as the Seven Summits themselves.”
Then turning to Frank, who was standing next to him, Dick added, “I mean it, Pancho.”
“You have just heard the second most awesome fact of these climbs,” Frank told the crowd. “And that is that after four years together, Dick Bass could say that to Frank Wells. The first most awesome fact is that after four years I can say the same thing back to Dick Bass.”
A dozen waiters then popped champagne corks and the bubbly fountained into the air like a fireworks finale.
“Dick,” Frank continued, “do you know what today is? Today is August 4, 1985—four years ago to the day we met at Warner Brothers Studio and shook hands agreeing to do the Seven Summits.”
The crowd cheered again.
“And there's one more thing I want to say. A lot of people have asked me how I really felt when Bass made it to the summit of Everest, and I wasn't there. I’ve been trying to figure out an easy answer, some way to explain how I didn't feel bad at all because with my new job I’m as happy as a pig in mud. Well, here's my answer.”
Frank then unbuttoned his tuxedo jacket, and pulling open his studded shirt exposed a T-shirt with a shoulder-to-shoulder image of Mickey Mouse. It brought down the house.
When the cheers and laughter subsided, Dick said, “Now for the banquet. Did you all see the movie Tom Jones? Well, we're about to have our eating scene.”
“Wait a minute,” Frank interjected. “First, I’ve got one more thing to say. I know this is liable to upset a lot of plans and a lot of celebration today, but I’ve just got a message, and I feel I must read it.”
Frank then reached in his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. “’To Frank Wells from the U.S. Department of Interior,’” Frank read. “ ‘Thank you for your recent inquiries concerning the altitudes of the peaks in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. We understand your interest, and that of your mountain climbing associates, regarding the possibility that Mount Tyree rather than Mount Vinson may actually be the highest mountain in Antarctica.
“ ‘As you may know, our original measurements of the Ellsworth Mountains were made in the early 1960’s and had some inherent inaccuracies. At that time, our measurement of Mount Vinson showed it to be 16,860 feet, the highest point on the continent.
“Recently a new survey using cross-reference measurements from five different satellite positions resulted in a new altitude for Mount Vinson. The new measurement is 16,067 feet.
“ ‘As you know, that makes Mount Tyree, by our old measurement, actually a few feet higher.’ “
Dick's hand holding his champagne glass dropped to his side, and his ebullient bearing changed to incredulous dismay.
“Oh, my God, I can't believe this.”
Frank paused, held up his hand, and said, “Wait, let me finish.” He paused again, then slowly continued the message:
“ ‘However, we have just completed the new measurement for Mount Tyree. The final altitude is …’ “
Frank paused again, smiling impishly.
“ ‘…fifteen thousand nine hundred and three feet. So Mount Vinson is still higher than Mount Tyree—by 170 feet!’ “
“Aah-eah-eaahhh!”
The waiters popped more champagne, the crowd cheered, and the symphony and chorus cut loose with “The Impossible Dream.”
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SEVEN SUMMITS
TWO UNDAUNTED MEN
Frank Wells was the head of a major motion picture studio. Dick Bass had made his fortune as an energy and resort entrepreneur. In middle age, both men left behind home, family, and successful careers to share an impossible dream.
SEVEN UNCONQUERED SUMMITS
The challenge: be the first to climb the highest mountain on each of seven continents, from McKinley to Kilimanjaro to Everest. The obstacles: many and merciless, from ice storms to illness to a measurement question that threatened to make their record-breaking expedition a sham. The prize: the sheer, exhilarating triumph of standing at the top of every continent on earth.
“It's a great adventure story, filled with heroics, tragedy, humor, and, ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit. Seven Summits should be required reading for all who need a reminder of the importance of pursuing your dreams.”
—Tom Brokaw
“[A] story of determination, grit, humor and sensitivity …. You won't put this one down.”
—USA Today
“I think we all experience at one time or another that feared regret that there is something we should have done in our life. Frank and Dick will never have that concern. This is a completely admirable achievement. My only regret is that I wasn't there with them.” —Robert Redford
Jacket design by Anthony Russo
Jacket photo by Bruce Coleman, inc.
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